So the time was finally here to say goodbye to Thailand again! Something we were sad about but we were ready to continue our journey to a new country. Today we were headed to Malaysia via a cheap Air Asia flight from the smaller Dong Muang airport. We had never flown from there but after being quoted 500 baht for a taxi we thought we would find our own way using public transport! To do this we had to give ourselves a bit more time to get to the airport as we needed to use the MRT and then wait for a bus to get there. So we were up at 7am so we had time to have coffee in our room whilst we got ready and finished packing.
After checking out of our hotel we walked the short distance back to Wat Mangkon MRT station. Already very familiar with how this worked we bought tickets to Chatuchak park MRT station where we would have to change and get the bus (42B each). This was quite a few stops away and took about 30-40 minutes to get there. One thing we hadn’t accounted for was that we were leaving in rush hour. We let the first train pass us as it was packed. Thankfully the 2nd one only a few minutes later was less busy, although we still had to stand the entire way- but managed to put our luggae on the floor in front of us. On getting to the station we exited from exit 2 as from here we just had to turn right, walk past the stairs and the bus stop for the A1 or A2 airport was right there. It was clearly labelled and there was literally an A2 bus pulling in as we got there. After flagging it down we hopped on and the conductor came around to charge for tickets (30B each). The bus didn’t stop again until it got to Terminal 1 of the airport which was what we needed only 15 minutes later! The whole process had been super easy, quick and a lot cheaper than the taxi prices, even using grab!
We arrived quite early for our flight as we were expecting to have to wait for the bus and things to generally take a bit longer. Still we found the AirAsia check in desks and after crossing everything that our hand luggage wasn’t going to get weighed they literally looked at our passports, asked if we had anything to check in and then gave us our passports! Smooth sailing so far. As it is only a small airport we made our way through the international passport control to be stamped out and security and we were in the departures area 5 minutes later!
There were a few restaurants and shops so we wandered around a bit before finding our gate. Then we individually went hunting for what we could buy with our last few baht, not wanting to really get anything out. In the end we grabbed some coffees, small bao buns and very cheap ice creams from mcdonalds to tide us over for a bit. Our flight was in the afternoon and we weren’t due to get to Malaysia until 16.30. The flight was on time and we landed in KL at 16.30pm.
Unfortunately the Malaysian side was not as efficient as the Thai side. We had to queue for ages at passport control. Then when at passport control I nearly didn’t get through as they wanted to see my return/ onward ticket (which I didn’t have as we didn’t know where we were going next or when). Luckily the passport control officer was just about to check with other staff when she asked me if I was with anyone. I gestured to Dave who at that minute was just being stamped through. She decided against taking it any further and just stamped me in… always a risk at security! Hilariously Dave said his passport control office was just rocking out to Metallica and literally just stamped him through without asking for anything!
As we travel with only hand luggage we didn’t have to wait for that, which was a good thing as it was already pretty late by the time we got through security. We quickly found a U mobile sim shop to get traveller sims (48 MYR each for 1 month unlimited data) and managed to get cash out from HSBC with no fees for once! I had planned on getting the star bus to Petaling street area where we were staying as it is the cheapest way for getting there. However when we got to the bus ticket counters we were told there were only buses to KL Sentral and we would have to wait another hour for one (7pm). One other option was to get the KLIA express train that runs every 15 minutes to KL Sentral but it was going to be a lot more expensive (50MYR pp plus travel from KL Sentral to our hotel). In the end we had a quick look on Air Asia’s ride share app and it was actually cheaper at 73 MYR (not quicker than the train) to use that. The airport is a long way from the central city and to Chinatown it took us a good hour and a bit, finally arriving at 7.15pm.
Our hostel Kitez was directly off Petaling Street, the heart of Chinatown and after ducking behing some stalls we managed to find the entrance. We checked in and found our very basic windowless room for the night. We dumped our stuff down and then ate some interesting doughnuts we had bought at the airport- curry and on the hostel terrace. There was a bit of life left in Petaling street but we headed straight over to figure out the LRT to KL Sentral (1.70 MYR each) and to check the timetable for the Kommuter train to Seremban the next day. Annoyingly the one at the station is completley different to google so I am glad we went and checked. Once back in the Petaling street area we finally found proper food- stopping at an open indian/ malay restaurant for a chicken biryani and murtabak (19MYR). Both were delicious and very filling and it was great to have a different type of flavour profile. It was time to chill and head to bed after what ended up being a very long travel day!
Tomorrow is another travel day- this time to Seremban so we were closer to our housesit- that will be in the next one.
Thanks
Alex
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